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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27622324">messy enough</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliwellwhocares/pseuds/oliwellwhocares'>oliwellwhocares</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>no fucking way [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Gen, Healing, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Post-War, again he tries, gaara is here now and hes so cool, sasuke is shocked and upset to find out that trauma actually fucks you up, trying to</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:27:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,781</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27622324</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliwellwhocares/pseuds/oliwellwhocares</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Don’t your friends have a place?”</p><p>Sasuke’s <i>friends</i> with a <i>place</i> are Juugo, Suigetsu, and Karin, who live in a glorified warehouse watched over by ANBU. It’s a wretched place abandoned by the gods, and Sasuke would know. He’s living in the house where his parents died, that even the rats don’t come near to.</p><p>“I would rather die,” he says at the same time that Naruto says “okay, no.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gaara/Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura &amp; Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke &amp; Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>no fucking way [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106423</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. the running one</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I haven't watched all of Naruto but i DID watch the last epic fight where they lose an arm and proclaim their eternal love, so i wrote this</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Uchiha compound is always quiet.</p><p>Rationally, Sasuke knows that it wasn’t always. That during his childhood, it used to be a busy place, never too noisy, but filled with people and movement. </p><p>But it’s been silent for a decade, and something in him won’t believe that it’s ever been otherwise. </p><p>He hasn’t been here in years, during which he can only assume that it was as silent as ever. Meanwhile, he was off betraying, disappointing and murdering family and country, which is a pretty noisy activity. What with frequenting all sorts of criminals and lunatics on the regular, sleeping outside when you’re lucky, in creepy caves when you’re not, and everything, you get pretty used to the background noise. </p><p>It’s the fourth night Sasuke spends here, and he hasn’t slept much more than the other nights. The quiet is eerie, too deep. No enemy observing him, no animals scurrying around, not even plants rustling in the non-existent wind. The sky is getting lighter, nothing alive dares to come close to the mansion, and Sasuke doesn’t sleep.</p><p>Why the fuck did Naruto want him to come back. </p><p>Some genius Sasuke is, asking himself the same question for years and still not figuring out the answer until it was literally, physically beaten into him. </p><p>Naruto’s his friend. He doesn’t <em> want </em> to be his friend, he’s not <em> asking </em> to be his friend, he just <em> is. </em>Nothing Sasuke can do about it.</p><p>Which brings him here.</p><p>Well, not really. Naruto wants him to be here, but why <em> is he </em>here. He spent almost 5 years doing everything Naruto Uzumaki and Konoha didn’t want him to do, why stop there?</p><p>Well. He doesn’t have much better to do, does he.</p><p>That’s not a train of thought Sasuke particularly likes, so he stands up and decides to go punch something. And kick. Probably mostly kick, right.</p><p>The sky is much less dark now, a light peeking on the horizon. There used to be more trees around here, and more buildings too. Wouldn’t you believe, that’s the sort of things that gets destroyed in a war. </p><p>The mansion is still intact somehow, but not much around is, so Sasuke can just walk out and watch the sun rise. He doesn’t, because he has better things to do, like find something to punch. Kick. It’s important that it’s not someone, wouldn’t want Naruto to have a reason to yell at him before his first week back is over.</p><p>Well. <em> Another </em> reason. There’s already quite a lot, actually, but somehow they haven’t fought in those four days since Sasuke has been here. He wonders if that’s about to change, because a living thing is approaching the Uchiha mansion, and it’s Naruto, and he’s running.</p><p>Then again, running is pretty much his natural state.</p><p>Sasuke doesn’t care for this shit, so he walks. </p><p>Naruto stops in front of him, and Sasuke says “Hey idiot,” and Naruto says “I moved, you know!”</p><p>Everything looks paler in this light. Washed-out blond hair, pale orange clothes, even his skin looks as pale as Sasuke’s. It’s freaky.</p><p>“Like, recently?”</p><p>“Kinda?” Naruto answers. “It was a few months ago, or, almost a year? So I haven’t been in it a lot,” he laughs, “but it’s cool!” </p><p>So Sasuke did, in fact, know that.</p><p>“Yeah I knew that.”</p><p>“Well, it’s cool.”</p><p>Naruto already said that, so he doesn’t really know what to answer. </p><p>They walk in silence for a while. Sasuke wonders if Naruto would agree to spar. Probably not, but maybe if they go far enough from the village they could hit some trees.</p><p>“SO!” says Naruto, loudly for an average person, not particularly loud for him, and then he stops talking there.</p><p>They’re still walking. Actually, they should start running if they want to get far enough into the forest for him to talk to Naruto about hitting stuff.</p><p>“SO,” Naruto says again, “the house.”</p><p>“Yours?”</p><p>“No, yours.”</p><p>“My house,” says Sasuke. “What about it.”</p><p>“You sleep there.”</p><p>Well he doesn’t do a lot of sleeping.</p><p>“Yeah,” he says anyway.</p><p>“What’s that like?”</p><p>Bad, he thinks.</p><p>He says nothing and shrugs.</p><p>Naruto hums thoughtfully. </p><p>The tree line is still pretty far. Has this compound always been so big?</p><p>“Soooo… You’ gonna like…” </p><p>Fuck this, Sasuke starts running. Naruto follows naturally, still so loud when he bounces against branches and tree trunks. Well, it’s not like he ever had much use for discretion anyway.</p><p>“Hmmmmm…” </p><p>Just spit it out, Naruto.</p><p>“Like, live here or something?”</p><p>Well this is dumb.</p><p>“I said I was coming back to Konoha.”</p><p>He’s not changing his mind now.</p><p>“Yeah, but I mean, you don’t have to live <em> here.</em>”</p><p>He quickly glances at Naruto, who looks stupid and is staring very intently at the trees ahead. That’s good, because he’s probably still not above taking a branch in the face. It’s also bad because Sasuke has no idea what the fuck that means.</p><p>“In Konoha,” he just says again. </p><p>“Yeah, I mean, you don’t have to be <em> here</em>, in Konoha! Wait that came out wrong.”</p><p>It sure fucking did, because it sounds like he’s contradicting everything he spent a whole epic fight hammering into Sasuke.</p><p>“I mean, you can be <em> here</em>, in Konoha, but live somewhere else, right? ‘Cause like, this place, well, you know.”</p><p><em> You know </em> could mean <em> you know, it’s a bit far from the whole village, </em> or <em> you know, it’s creepy as shit and even the rats don’t come close, </em> or <em> you know, that’s where your whole family died and you spent years ruminating your vengeance, </em> or <em> you know, most of it is destroyed anyway</em>. There’s a lot to know about the Uchiha mansion, and not much of it is good.</p><p>Naruto’s an idiot, though.</p><p>“Where do you mean?”</p><p>“Uh?”</p><p>“I’m an Uchiha. Where else would I live?” </p><p>“I mean, anywhere?”</p><p>“Yeah, anywhere people would rent to me.”</p><p>Which is, understandably, pretty much no one.</p><p>“Don’t your friends have a place?”</p><p>Sasuke’s <em> friends </em> with a <em> place </em> are Juugo, Suigetsu, and Karin, who live in a glorified warehouse watched over by ANBU. It’s a wretched place abandoned by the gods, and Sasuke would know. He’s living in the house where his parents died, that even the rats don’t come near to. </p><p>“I would rather die,” he says at the same time that Naruto says “<em>okay, no.</em>”</p><p>“Still,” he keeps going, because that’s Naruto for you. Unstoppable. “I don’t think it’s good for you to stay there.”</p><p>Not many things are good for him. The Uchiha mansion isn’t exactly <em> good</em>, but it’s not that bad, and it’s his. It’s undeniably, eternally his.</p><p>“Whatever.”</p><p>“You can come live with me!”</p><p>With him?</p><p>“With you?”</p><p>What the fuck.</p><p>“Yeah with me! I mean, honestly you can come live with anyone, like, Shino, or Sakura, or someone I don’t know, but I just don’t think you should stay there, I mean, it’s like, well, it’s creepy, you know.”</p><p>Again, Sasuke <em> does </em> know. But Shino hates him, and Sakura <em> hates </em>him, and Naruto knows everyone.</p><p>After a second of thinking, he says: “No one comes here.”</p><p>This, too, came out wrong.</p><p>“You can always find a use for it later!”</p><p>Ah, yes, that’s what he meant.</p><p>The thing is, the problem is the quiet, really. The problem is how huge it is, and how empty it is. They’re ninjas. Raised to survive war and utilise every resource to its full potential. All this empty space, the huge, useless building, all the stone and surviving wood from what used to be facilities and places he wasn’t allowed to go. No one touches it, while the village is trying to rebuild itself from a war. It’s weird, and uncomfortable, and if Konoha doesn’t want to use it, well, Sasuke will.</p><p>He’s the last of the Uchiha, after all. </p><p>“Think about it! If you live with me you’ll be closer to the city, and it will be easier to work on reconstruction, and you can start from there, right?”</p><p>He doesn’t really know what <em> there </em> is, or where he’s supposed to go next, or what reconstruction he’s supposed to work on. He’ll be able to work on. Someone will let him work on. If he’s not going to sleep, he might as well work, though.</p><p>Still, it makes sense, in a way. Isn’t he supposed to move forward?</p><p>Is this what moving forward is?</p><p>Sasuke doesn’t care, in the end. They’re far enough from the village, so he stops, and Naruto’s actually the one to suggest hitting trees, shaking his left hand like there’s ants crawling on him. Sasuke’s right hand relaxes, forcefully.</p><p>He’ll follow Naruto into Konoha today. Maybe he’ll follow him to his apartment if the idiot has something acceptable for dinner.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. the sakura one</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>
  <i>Sakura hates him and wants to kill him, and honestly, that’s fair.</i>
</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this chapter is about sasuke being a misogynist. he's lucky he's gay.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sakura wants to kill him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasuke’s not going to lie, when he first realised it, it was kind of a shock. When he was 12, Sakura had been… Well, sort of a friend. Mostly just someone who was here and wasn’t too bad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After he left, Sakura hadn’t been much. Just someone else from Konoha standing behind Naruto, yelling at him to come back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she had almost cracked his skull. That had been sort of a surprise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, that was a year ago, so now it’s just a fact of life. Sakura hates him and wants to kill him, and honestly, that’s fair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What Sasuke doesn’t get, now, is why she’s not actually trying to kill him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, not anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s been over two months since Sasuke came back to the village. He lives in Naruto’s apartment, and sort of occupies himself with whatever people are willing to trust him with each day, which isn’t much, but hey. Lifting logs all day is still better than sitting on his futon, wondering how the fuck he ended up here, and what he’s going to do now that he’s 17 with an entirely dead family and no left arm and no goal in life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he lifts logs, or other bullshit jobs like that, and regularly enough, people try to kill him. Mostly random Konoha inhabitants, that he can feel coming and avoid for a week until they give up. A few were persistent enough that he ended up confronting them, trying to strike a balance to scare them enough to make it stop, without…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well. Without disappointing Naruto. It’s all he does these days, wonder about what the fuck Naruto is feeling, and the uninimaginable pain Sasuke put him in for all those years, because of course, whatever Sasuke himself was feeling, it was surely worse for his big, stupid heart. So then he tries to do whatever will make him… Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>happy</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but the less sad. He’s pretty sure, now, that no amount of bullshit he pulls will make Naruto give up on him, so the least he can do is try to make it not too terrible to be his friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which brings him back to Sakura. Who wanted to kill him, and still very much wants to, from how she looks at him whenever she sees him. What’s more, she’s one of the most powerful shinobi here, and there’s not much Sasuke can do to her without making Naruto upset, so she honestly has a pretty good chance of success.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Day after day, Sakura glares at him, in the streets and outside the Hokage’s office and in Naruto’s kitchen. And yet day after day, her perfectly sharp kunais stay put, and although her hands curl pretty often into destructive fists, she never actually hits anyone. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After over two months of this, Sakura opens the door of her flat before Sasuke can even knock, immediately glaring at him as usual.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasuke decides that honesty is the best way to go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you not trying to kill me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She frowns even more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gives her a blank look. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well.” Where to begin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighs, “oh, you mean in general. Why haven’t I tried to kill you since you came back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She studies his face. She’s not frowning so much anymore, but whatever expression her face shifts through, her hatred is always palpable through her chakra, unmistakable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t reach for a kunai, her hands are relaxed at her sides, and she says: “Come inside.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasuke walks inside and wonders if she’s going to poison him. It doesn’t seem her style.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do want to kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura’s apartment is pretty typical of a ninja. Sparsely decorated, orderly enough to find anything quickly, but not so much that she’s going to waste time on it. Sakura herself is seated at her dining table, sipping tea. She didn’t offer a chair or a cup to Sasuke, so he’s standing and he’s kinda thirsty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. That’s why I don’t understand why you’re not doing it.” Naruto wants him to be nice to her, so he adds, “You’d have a good shot at it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s sincere, but it makes Sakura’s mouth twist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think I don’t kill you because I lack self-confidence?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shrugs. It’s hard to imagine her lacking confidence, but he did end up here because he doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> why she’s not actively trying to murder him, so. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s because of Naruto, you idiot. You know he doesn’t want you to die, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s probably a rhetorical question, but he nods anyway. He knows this now, he’s not going to forget it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, there you go. He’s my friend and I love him, so as long as you don’t pull the same shit twice, I’m not going to kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sasuke’s brain splits in two. One half is going </span>
  <em>
    <span>not killing me for Naruto’s friendship, that shit is powerful</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and the other half takes control of his mouth and says “Oh, you love him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which is not that bad, because what he was actually thinking was </span>
  <em>
    <span>LOVE?! FUCKING LOVE?!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Sakura’s fingers spasm, tearing a worrying sound from the delicate cup.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. Isn’t your shitty self supposed to be his friend too?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s a bad influence on you, you didn’t use to swear so much.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off,” she says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He doesn’t really know what to say to that. It’s fine, because after a few seconds, Sakura keeps going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not your friend, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can avoid killing you for Naruto, but even for him I won’t go that far. If you want to be friends, you’ll actually have to make some effort yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to be friends with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She puts the empty teacup down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine by me. I’m not the one with only one friend who isn’t a war criminal, and I’m not the one who went knocking on someone’s door to ask them why they’re not killing me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There are so many insulting things in this sentence that he just decides to ignore all of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t need you to be friends with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’m really enjoying not being friends with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just leave, Sasuke.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s not even sitting down, so he only has two steps to take towards the door. He stops with his hand on the knob, thinking that this might be what finally convinces her to kill him when he says, “Didn’t you use to be in love with me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I think I’m a lesbian actually,” she says. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thanks for reading this new chapter, it's my fav one, plz tell me if you liked it too! next chapter is also ready and will be posted in the coming week ig</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. the arm one</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Naruto gets a new arm. He's got two now!</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This has been a little long but listen i'm busy crying about school every day, so i'm doing my best. Oh uh i don't know if I should put warnings for this one? they joke about missing some arms, and prosthetics, so, if you're sensitive about that do be aware</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Naruto bangs the door open and yells “LOOK WHAT I GOT!”</p><p>Sasuke looks at him, and almost falls off the couch laughing.</p><p>“HEY FUCKER.” Naruto says, while Sasuke feels like he’ll never breathe again.</p><p>“IT DOESN’T LOOK THAT BAD.”</p><p>It doesn’t, really, but Sasuke couldn’t say that even if he wanted to because the only sound his mouth is producing is pathetic little wheezes. </p><p>Naruto’s got a new arm. He’s struggling to take off the jacket, and Sasuke is struggling to stay seated upright, but it honestly looks pretty good. Pretty much the color of Naruto’s skin, it even seems to be able to move, even though Naruto doesn’t appear to be in full control of it.</p><p>He’s got an <em> arm.  </em></p><p>And he just barged into the apartment to show it off to Sasuke, like Sasuke himself isn’t missing <em> a whole ass arm too. </em> </p><p>It’s so incredibly typical of Naruto, he doesn’t even know where to begin, but he does know that it’s the most hilarious shit he has seen in a while, probably ever. </p><p>“I’ll tell the old Tsunade that you laughed at her super cool arm,” pouts Naruto. Sasuke, still, cannot speak, but this time he really wishes he could, to point out that <em> what </em> would Tsunade say to that. Probably something along the lines of <em> yes good I hope the bastard with </em> his <em> missing arm laughs himself to death</em>, which Naruto, for some reason, doesn’t seem to realise.</p><p>He gasps.</p><p>“OH SHIT.”</p><p>Ah, he’s realising.</p><p>“WAS THAT LIKE, INSENSITIVE?”</p><p>This time, Sasuke falls entirely off the couch.</p><p> </p><p>Shinobis have excellent internal clocks. Still, Sasuke’s unsure how long it was until Naruto and himself regained their breath enough to have a conversation. His guess is at a reasonable 10 minutes. Anyway, at some point they stop clutching their stomach (and isn’t it wild that Sasuke’s internal organs went through some pretty extensive damage in their time, and yet <em> laughing </em> can hurt so much), and Naruto murmurs weakly, “Well, shit.”</p><p>This makes Sasuke hiccup for a short minute, but it’s fine. They’re fine. They’re in control. </p><p>Naruto’s eyes fleet between his brand new arm and Sasuke’s empty left sleeve, and both of their lips quiver at the corner.</p><p>Control. They’re high-level shinobis.</p><p>Naruto ends up sighing.</p><p>“Well, sorry, you know?”</p><p>Sasuke snorts.</p><p>“It was fucking hilarious, so it’s fine.”</p><p>“Well, it’s not like you’re gonna be jealous, if you ever want an arm, you know…”</p><p>“Sure, if I ever need another right arm, I’ll ask you.”</p><p>“I’ll just ask the old Tsunade for more right arms. We could always use more right arms.”</p><p>They both grin, and then Naruto says “Anyway, they said to try to take it off when i get home, so,” and tries to take the arm off.</p><p>The thing is, it keeps having spasms, and when he manages to get a grip on it, he turns it right and left and doesn’t seem to make a lot of progress.</p><p>He swears under his breath, and goes “Wait I think it was like-” and the artificial hand brutally slaps Sasuke’s shin. </p><p>“Shit,” Naruto mutters from the ground, while Sasuke thinks that it was a good idea to climb back up on the couch or that would have been his face. </p><p>When Naruto tries to block the arm with the table, Sasuke says “You’re such an idiot.”</p><p>“Well it’s not as easy as it seems!”</p><p>“Didn’t you just watch Tsunade do it?”</p><p>“No, it was Sakura, and it took like two hours,” he mutters, which means that’s two hours he spent chatting to his friend and not paying any attention. </p><p>Naruto spends a minute sliding the arm out from under the table, and then thrusts it in his direction.</p><p>“You better control that hand,” Sasuke says.</p><p>“I do control it!”</p><p>“Like hell.”</p><p>“I can pick up stuff, look!”</p><p>The glass <em>almost</em> falls off the table before Naruto actually manages to lift it, but it doesn’t. So, that’s kind of impressive. </p><p>“Is it connected to your nerves or something?”</p><p>“Yeah, chakra stuff, apparently I don’t have to use my chakra to control it though.”</p><p>“But you do.”</p><p>“I mean, it’s hard not to.”</p><p>The arm feels heavy. He knows Naruto’s flesh stops just above the elbow, well, where his elbow used to be, same as his. The unidentified material goes higher, though, and several straps wrap around the shoulder, so he undoes those first.</p><p>“What’s it made of?”</p><p>He aborts a shrugging movement before Sasuke glares at him.</p><p>“There’s some wood.”</p><p>Fascinating.</p><p>Well honestly, if there was a heavy mass of wood and other unknown stuff attached to his stump, he would instinctively put some chakra in it too.</p><p>Looking under the surface, he can see a lot of mechanisms that he doesn’t really understand, but the ones to take off the arm must be simple, and situated around the junction between Naruto and the prosthetic. </p><p>There’s a sort of ring, around the biceps, that turns fairly easily when Sasuke gets his fingers around it. Still, something seems to be stuck.  </p><p>“Hey idiot, I think you’re sticking it to your arm with chakra.”</p><p>Naruto frowns at him.</p><p>“I’m not putting any chakra into it. Can’t you just pull harder?”</p><p>“Yeah sure, and finally convince Tsunade and Sakura to kill me, I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Didn’t take you for such a pussy.”</p><p>Sasuke’s tempted to pull harder then, because even if he died for it, Naruto would get killed too for talking like that. However, that’s exactly what the idiot wants, so.  </p><p>“Fuck off.” It’s disturbing that this makes him sound like Sakura. “Just relax. Do you still haven’t learned to fucking meditate?”</p><p>“How do you think I was able to connect with the demon inside me you asshole?”</p><p>Honestly, he doesn’t know. Meditating certainly didn’t bring <em> him </em> inner peace, so. </p><p>“Well then, relax. Let it go.”</p><p>Naruto glares at him, and the arm unlocks and falls away, easy as breathing. Sasuke puts it aside while the blond sighs and stretches his shoulder.</p><p>“Where should I put it?” he asks.</p><p>The arm feels lighter now that it’s not attached to Naruto anymore.</p><p>He shrugs, so Sasuke puts it on the couch above them. Naruto’s trying to reach some mysterious place between his shoulders. </p><p>“You’re so stupid,” says Sasuke, moving behind him. He digs between his shoulder blades, and Naruto slumps forward.</p><p>"Well," he says, "yeah."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i have mixed feelings about this chapter so please tell me what you thought! btw i'm oliwellwhocares on twitter too don't hesitate to talk to me over there. Next up, the one and only reason why i wrote all this: Gaara time</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. the date one</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Sasuke is considerably taller than Gaara, and it should count for something.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>WELL IM BACK. some internalised homophobia in this one, take care! also ssome uh, light dehumanisation? Sasuke is really mean to Gaara but like it's ok i'm not here to write real angst<br/>btw research informed me that there's no significant height difference between gaara naruto and sasuke but i decided thats ridiculous so gaara is tiny and that's not mentionned but know that i believe sasuke to be freakishly tall</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Gaara of the Desert, Kazekage of Sunagakure, comes to Konoha for a diplomatic visit, a year after the end of the war.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Gaara, who is tiny and also an asshole, comes to visit Naruto at the beginning of spring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Those two things are almost the same, but one has pretty much nothing to do with Sasuke, while the other seems specifically designed to annoy him, on a personal level and honestly pretty much every level imaginable. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sasuke opens the door, and glares down at Gaara. He’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>small.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m here to see Naruto. Is he here?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sasuke glares harder. The fact that Gaara doesn’t have eyebrows makes him look like an expressionless baby dressed as a punk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is Naruto here?” Gaara repeats, apparently ready to patiently repeat himself until Sasuke answers. Sasuke is not going to answer, first of all because he doesn’t want to, and second because Naruto, judging by the wild chakra and crashing noises from behind him, is very obviously here. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He indeed pokes his head under Sasuke’s arm the next second.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Gaara! Come in!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His hand is gripping Sasuke’s arm before he even stops talking, and he grabs Gaara too, dragging the both of them inside the apartment. Except they all stop after only one step because Sasuke has to slam the door closed with his foot, because Naruto never fucking does it, while Gaara removes his shoes because he’s annoying like that. So Sasuke turns back after closing the goddamn door, while Naruto tugs uselessly on both of their arms like he doesn’t have the strength to carry them both to Suna and back if he wanted to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hey, wait.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His right hand is wrapped around Sasuke’s arm, just below the elbow, where he usually grips him whenever Sasuke isn’t going wherever he wants him to, which is most of the time. Well maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrapped </span>
  </em>
  <span>isn’t quite right, </span>
  <em>
    <span>someone</span>
  </em>
  <span>’s still lacking fine motor control, but you get the idea.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, he’s not holding </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gaara’s </span>
  </em>
  <span>arm. He’s holding his hand. He’s holding the fucking hand of fucking Gaara, while said fucking Gaara straightens up and says “Hello Naruto, thank you for having me.” and Naruto fucking… Beams at him. A giant smile, like there’s any need for this when they have a perfectly functioning lamp right there in the living room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The next second, Naruto’s not holding anyone’s arm because Sasuke has left the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He goes to his bedroom. That is, he goes to his half of Naruto’s bedroom, which is separated from the other half by a wooden screen that Naruto had for some reason. Okay, the screen is lying on the ground right now, and shoved in a corner, but Sasuke’s going to put it back up eventually. For now, he sits on his futon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Okay. So. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He doesn’t have anything to do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s barely a handful of people willing to trust him with basic manual labor, it’s not like anyone’s going to give him paperwork to do at home anytime soon. He’s not usually bored at the apartment, because Naruto’s here. But Naruto is with the shitty redhead, and Sasuke can’t exactly leave now that they both saw him walk with determination to the bedroom, so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whatever. He can find stuff to do. He’s not some goddamn baby.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sasuke sits on the ground, and tries his best to meditate while ignoring the twin presences next door. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Gaara’s chakra is distractingly quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For fuck’s sake, the dude was Shukaku’s host for like 16 years, and he can still crush a man with sand in less than a second, and yet his presence in the living room is subdued. The kind Sasuke could almost ignore if he didn’t know who it was coming from. Naruto’s chakra, at least, is as wild as Sasuke has always known it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s been almost an hour, and Sasuke is calm. Sort of. He’s okay, kinda. He’s getting better at meditating, which he’s absolutely not going to tell anyone. But there’s a kind of place he’s able to reach, now. A place where the shitty redhead won’t, hopefully, be able to disturb him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’re still in the living room, so he only has to take three steps down the corridor to see them seating at the table. They’re leaning close to each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’re leaning really close.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naruto turns to him and says “How did it go?” and that’s when Sasuke realises they were kissing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were </span>
  <em>
    <span>kissing</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naruto was kissing </span>
  <em>
    <span>motherfucking shithead Gaara</span>
  </em>
  <span>, who is, Sasuke just decided, the absolute worst person alive. And also obviously able to completely wreck his peace, or whatever Sasuke was supposed to achieve through meditation, without talking or even looking at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because Gaara is, of course, not looking at him. He’s staring at Naruto’s mouth, which is shiny and pinker than usual. Sasuke is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>staring at his mouth, thank you, he’s staring at his neck, where Gaara’s hand looks pale and ugly and gross against Naruto’s skin. The asshole’s hand is resting against the collar of Naruto’s shirt, pushing it down just a little, showing a hint of collarbones. It’s entirely disgusting. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Naruto is looking at him, because he just asked him a question. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How did it go. </span>
  </em>
  <span>What kind of stupid question is that. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What were you doing,” Sasuke asks, which is much more interesting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re on a date,” Gaara lies before Naruto can answer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, we were doing date stuff, why?” Naruto adds. He’s blushing a little, hints of pink on his cheeks and on his neck, coloring his skin a little more against Gaara’s sickly white hand. The blush is good, because Naruto should feel ashamed for his obvious lie. Gaara probably isn’t able to feel a human emotion such as shame.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You can’t be on a date,” Sasuke points out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For this, Gaara finally looks at him, so he gets two confused stares. Well, a confused stare with a little laugh, and a stupid blank stare that kind of looks like confusion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why,” says Naruto, while Gaara lies again and says “We’re dating.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You can’t be dating.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why,” Naruto repeats.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They simply </span>
  <em>
    <span>can’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>, is the thing. Dating is girls and their bright-eyed confessions, soft hands, long hair, and then, well, then. Getting married and having kids. Maybe even raising them well, if you’re really in love.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dating is not whatever Naruto and Gaara could ever have going on. Naruto and his loud voice and louder smiles, always running everywhere, his strong hands, hand, hands, his unstoppable dream. He deserves to love and be loved and have a bunch of children, and it’s obvious to everyone who sees him that he will.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Gaara is… Well, Gaara is sad as shit, for starters. And he’s a boy. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Break up, then,” he ends up saying before leaving by the front door. He’s going to find something to do. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He really can’t believe the nerve of this guy. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dating Naruto.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>SO HERE. okay, this story is NOT finished, and i'm already writing other stuff about it, but the pov are differents so far so i decided i'm MAKING A SERIES. As soon as i find a title for it. anyway, THANK YOU for reading my sasuke fanfic until then, please tell me if you liked it, and i hope you'll like what's next too!!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading sasuke fanfic in 2020, please leave a comment if you liked my specific 2020 sasuke fanfic !</p></blockquote></div></div>
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